Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Aug. 3, 1978, edition 1 / Page 2
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• cflimwiiT. cornu | Women Caucus Offers Needed Direction By Hoyle H. Martin Sr. Post Editorial Writer In a challenge to the Charlotte community, and particularly the black community, the Black Women’s Caucus has unveiled in perspective a series of problems faced by black Charlotteans. In a two-hour workshop last Sun day at the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church on Beatties Ford Road, about 80 blacks listened as articulate workshop leaders outlined four significant problems: (1) the vast majority of eligible black voters are ’apathetic, that is, they are either not registered to vote or if registered too often don’t vote, (2) black teenage girls are having babies and abort ions in ever increasing numbers, (3) over 75 percent of the black students m the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools failed the reading airi math .competency tests and (4) thousand of local black vouth use drugs. i These problems are not new nor are they something that was un known. What is significant is that a concerned group - the Black Women’s Caucus - brought concer ned people together as a means of identifying an in-depth meaning of eacn protnem ana allowing the : participants to voice opinions, de bate, air grievances and offer sug gested solutions. ■f We applaud and salute the Caucus for initiating the workshop. We hope too that as the Caucus marshalls its resources to take the necessary follow-up steps, parents, older brothers and sisters and other rela tives will attempt to create in the home environment forces and values that will help to diminish these problems. Furthermore, black ministers and other church leaders should demonstrate their interest and concern by encouraging parents and young people them selves to begin deahi« objectively with the problems at hand. However, let us not forget, that one of the four problems tV»ak with political apathy. The Post has said so much so often about this problem that we are not sure what else ran be said except to repeat that a voteless people are a hopeless people. It appears to us then that the first line of attack on these problems should be with the adults who won’t register or if registered won't vote. We make this suggestion because adult or parent apathy influences in a negative way the apathy of the youth using drugs, the teenage girl engaging in premarital sex or the student who lacks the motivation to try alittle harder. The Post calls upon all Charlot teans, black and white, young and old, to respond to the challenge that the Black Women’s Caucus has set before us. These are our neighbors, our children, our friends, and our community. Let’s help them get into the “main stream.” After all, we too have a personal stake in these problems. If they loose, we loose. Think about it. ——INeed Health Insurance 'Senator Edward Kennedy (D Mass-), a supporter of President Carter on nearly every major legis lative matter to date, has split with the President on the issue of national annual cost would be by government, employers, insurers and workers when put into effect in 1983 if approved by Congress. Califano quickly added with emphasis that the phased-in plan would clearly be linked to economic conditions such as the option to spend $10 billion on creat ing jobs instead of on health. Kennedy sharply broke with Carter an this saying he couldn’t support such a cautious approach. While Carter’s 10-point guiA>ii»w» for a national health insurance plan is vague at this point, it appears doubtful that blacks will oppose his plan considering the option proposal because poor health and unemploy ment each affect black people. The plight of black unemployment is well documented but few probably know the extent of black health i zz __ problems Blacks, Dr. Therman E. Evans tells us face ”quaarup*e jeopardy” in that they are admitted to the hospital more frequently than whites, and, once admitted, must bis happens because jo a grgfftar degree thd-inajarttiseases. Evans adds that blacks are faced more frequently with the high cost of medical care particularly when it is noted that poor blacks have a SO percent higher rate of days loss from work due to illness. For example, between 30 to 40 percent of all blacks have high blood pressure which increases the chances of suffering a stroke or having a heart attack. Furthermore, 31 percent of all black women are obese. Obesity, said to be most common among poor black women, increases the phaw<>« of developing diabetes and related pro blems. These facts are enough to illust rate our need for a meaningful national health insurance plan. However, jobs too are important for blacks, thus. Carter’s plan however developed may get strong black support when in final form. ■“ I _ LETTERS TOTHE EDITOR Response To uAs I See It ’Column -— In response to your "As I See It" column in TV Char lotte Post an July 6. 1978. may I offer a few statistics and informal ion to dear up your misconception that "most employed women wort to supplement another income." A majority of women work because of economic need. About three-fifths of all women workers are single, widowed, divorced, or separa ted. or have hushands whose earnings are less than S7.000 a year. Statistics show that of all female heads of household, approximately 70 percent are 'M4T at orUH6*'OW* pcfcerty woman in early America churned butter. With the Munintf rd a women worked in textile mills, in cigar factories, in sweat shops. In 1M0 they earned $1 50 a week: in 1910, $700. In Lowell. Massachuse tts. they threated cotton spools for 14 hours a day; in New York, they sewed seams on men's underwear for II horn a day". ..the bst goes on and on. Women in North Carolina be tween the ages of 20 and C5 have a higher participation rate in the labor force than do women throughout the nation. Some roots causes for women working in low paying jobs include poor career oriented education and train ing; vocational education still limits women to low paying jobs, and there is little attempt to open up norvtradi twnal areas: and a lot of apprenticeships remain closed to women out of custom aim uixiuiuoduui. 1 Here 15 also a tremendous lag in en forcement of sex discrimina tion laws - few. if any. Federal contracts have been canceled because of it We keep bearing bow we have laws already an the books to “protect” us against discrimination. That is some small comfort to a person, male or female, who has filed charges Of Hiv immatinw and who must wait two to three years far their to be beard or settled, due to the tremendous backlog of cases In the meantime, that person has to survive and provide for *ter families. Many tunes th^ have lost their jobs or harrassment her ante 'they have filed charges, even though the law says this must not happen While they are waiung ior mar cases to be beard, bow do they survive? How can they put food on the table for their chtkken and a roof over their heath? There is still a wide gap between male and female earnings with appr«im»i»ty 80 percent of females concen trated into low-paying, dead end jobs and earning less than males. Contrary to ynpiiar belief, women’s relative pro gress in the labor farce has been deteriorating in years. For example, in 19GS full-time earmngs^rere 64 percent of men, whereas by 1975, their earnings had (hopped to SB percent. The average anrmal income of men is almost twice that of women in North Carolina. Men make over (3.900 a year more than women m the same occupation. A woman with makes less pa year than a man with onhr an eighth grade education in far too many instances Taking married women out of the labor force would not create more jobs far men. If all the married women stayed home and tmemployed men woe placed in their jobs, there would be approximately 17.3 milhnw unfilled jobs. A salary sucb as Barbara Waha's is a rarity far women in any field. How many more women are there like Cathe rine Slackin. also a TV co respondent, who captured national attention - as ‘ cracker>anb inOq. kjf l^~ while tic National Convention, but whose salary was 000.000 less -- “>■ |*UU uuJC correspondent at the convent - ion. even though her job re sponsibilities were greater and ber qualifications higher’ I hope this information is at benefit to you. There is much more that could be said on this subject, but I will stop at this point The statistics I have given you. plus many more, are available from many soirees. 1 would be m«t happy to put you in touch with them if you so desire. Please fed free to ran on os any fine we may be at service. Sincerely. Fay Skkknore Administrative Coordinator Mecklenbirg County Commission at the Status of 316 East Morefaead St. Suite SB Charlotte. N.C. 282*2 704 374-3210 = — By Vfrucw K jnnfan Jr ■ | _ TO BE EQUAL Competency Tests Inadequate Every so often educators get hooked on a new fad that's supposed to cure what ails public education. This year’s panacea is something called the minimum competency test. Essentially, that’s a test that’s supposed to measure whether a student can successfully perform basic arithmetic and reading skills. If such tests were only guides to student perform ance - signals to parents and teachers that children who do poorly in them need special help to master basic skills - then there would be little concern. _ But that’s not the way they’re being used in many states. In Florida, for example, high school students who fail the test don’t get their diplomas. Youngsters who went through twelve years of school and then fail this one test are thus ^ victimized by the very educational system that ” failed to teach them basic skills. The system didn’t educate them, but it’s the students who are penalized by deprival of the diploma. Florida’s test results points to another danger. Schools in higher income neighborhoods showed few children failing the tests. Schools in low-income and minority neighborhoods had high failure rates. This indicates the real danger of such tests for the black community - disproportionate num bers of Mack children will leave school without a diploma. Instead of being a tool for locating learning problems, the tests become a tool for sorting and sifting and labelling minority child ren as failures. uie so many outer supposeaiy "neutral elements in our national life, competency tests work to the disadvantage of minorities. Black students are placed in a double bind. First the schools don’t do a proper job of educating them, and then, even when they successfully complete their course of study, failing the one test results in loss of the diploma. Simplistic reliance on competency tests is a political response to citizen concern about the schools’inadequacy. But despite the rhetoric by tests’ supporters, there’s little evidence that tesaramnaesaH in better retnofiai.? programs or lAtylMi school * Yes, schools may become geared to “teaching the test” at the expense of a broader education, but reducing educational experience to passing a single test makes a mockery of the educational process. It doesn’t have to be that way. Tests are all too often capricious, ill-conceived and culturally biased. But testing can be a useful tool to measure a student’s mastery over subject matter. The purpose of a test shouldn’t be to label the student; it should be a teaching guide to help instructors meet the individual needs of their students. Thus, competency tests introduced in early grades, and used as tools to help teachers who believe in their pupil’s potentials improve the education given children, have their place. Such tests are positive teaching tools, not mechanisms to label kids as failures or to track them into paths of failure and push them out of school. Such tests should be within the context of intense parental involvement, in which the rights and responsibilities of parents are encouraged bv school svstenrc c Jur rsew vox Begun NAACP Affirmative Action Mobilization Special to the Post In response to the N'AACPi call for a conference to exa mine the implications at the Supreme Court's decision ordering the athnissaon of Allan P Bakke to the Umver *ity of California. Darn Medi cal School, mare than 300 lawyers, affirmative action officers, educators and other concerned people attended the symposium in Detroit July 20 through 22. The extensive interest in the historic case that was display ed was one indication of the concern, if not worry, that many blacks have about the future of affirmative action The res fixation wan that, if we lose this struggle, the impact of other civil rights programs will be significantly reduced The Bakke decision was evaluated in six ‘A CaD to Action for a National Affirmative Action Mobilisation " The symposium also called attention to the Wa^r-Lavi- . tas Amendment to the appro pnations bill for the Depart ments of Labor and Health. Education and Welfare This measure would "prohibit timing lor any quota system . so that practices of reverse discrimination can be stopped Americans should express their alarm over this exceed ingly destructive measwe For. despite its teeming sim plicity. it would effectively cripple all Federal affirma tive action programs. The amendment < House BfB 129®* was recently passed by a 232-177 vote in the Houee and will soon be brought before the Senate It must not pass The NAACP has sent out a red alarm to its branches and members across the notion to demand that their Senators vote down the amenchnent. We aim urgently call qxn oar supporters to Join us in this endeavor The following ■ a summary of the Affirmative Action Mobilization Call 1 NAACP branches and State Conference should wort with churches, labor, fraternal. ■ttoraUonal. legal and other rimilarfy committed argam tatiorn to begin momtorii* affirmative action programs af all educations! imawM, I. Corporate. Nnini ii. labor •nd government leaders tadd publicly reaffirm their commitment to affirmative ict ion >■ 7>t NAACP iheO mobilise its Youth sad College Chao ten to call a conference on Bskkc. 4. The NAACP should organize a sat tonal Task Force to evaluate treads committed groups should catalogue eases in which affirmative action program are being attacked in the coarts and thwhut and Ale "friend of the court" briefs. C. The NAACP declares war oo all attempts to weaken or destroy affirmative action and civil rights enforcement f m mm through the attachment o< such riders and immhwn. as that sponsored by Repre senta lives Robert S Wafts (R-Pa ) and Elbott Levitas tO-Ga. >. and another by Sena tors Joseph Biden (D-Del.) and Thomas Eagleton < D-MO ). The Biden-Eagletoo amendment, also to the Labor HEW Appropriations bill *«*) again prohibit public school busing for intergration f.rutcuM ror nunonty Groups Civil Service Reform Actions •' the President's pUn, • percent. In addition, the Carter Administration hopes to con vince the Congress to change the so-called "rule of Urea" precechre in the civil service ttana must be from a list of three persona who scored highest on merit teats. The Carter Administration favors expending the Hat to seven <wPoriWiee°focothe«Tr nH"r* I i ml uiAKuiriL rwr “THE PEOPLES NEWSPAPER” Established 1918 . Published Every Thursday By The Charlotte Post Publishing Co , Inc. 1524 West Blvd.-Charlotte, N.C. 28208 Telephones (704) 376-0496, 376-0497 ^_^__^^_Circulation, 9,915 60 YEARS OF CONTINUOUS SERVICE Bill Johnson.Editor-Publisher Bernard Reeves.General Manager Hovle H. Martin Sr.Executive Editor Julius Watson.Circulation Director Albert Campbell.Advertising Director Second Class Postage No. 965500 Paid At Charlotte. N.C under the Act of March 3,1878 Member National Newspaper Publishers Association North Carolina Black Publishers Association Deadline for all news copy and photos is 5 p.m. Monday. All photos and copy submitted becomes the property of the POST, and will not be returned. National Advertising Representative Amalgamated PuW shers. Inc 45 W. 5«n Suite 1403 2400 S Michigan Ave. New York, N Y. 10096 Chicago. 111. 60616 (212) 489 1220 Calumet S-0200 - ■ ■ —- _ IT IS INCONCEIVABLE TO ME THAT WE HAVE PREVAILED im nr J^BARHARISM OF WHITE PEOPLE SHOULD IN THE LAST QLARTER OF THE 20th CENTURY STAND AS mitte SPECTATORS TO OUR OWN DOOM " MUTE ■M--fc-— -- — : We Talk About Community Control While The Black Community Becomes The Most Dangerous! --'■—
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Aug. 3, 1978, edition 1
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